Factors we considered for a future placement...

Peter and Roberta had to think about what situation would be suitable for their family.  Making a full family move with young children can be intimidating and exhilarating at the same time.  Many factors have to be considered.  Here were the focal points of our conversations, in no particular order of importance.

1)  Safety - We agreed that safety had to be a primary consideration as we were traveling with young children.  We used the US State Department Website and the CIA World Factbook  as our guides.  This meant that countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, Egypt, and even some parts of Mexico were not viable options for our family.
2)  Quality of Life - We wanted to go to an area where we would have a somewhat similar quality of life in terms of public services (internet, water quality, transportation, etc.).  This eliminated many countries in Africa and some in Central and South America.
3)  Quality of Education - We wanted to go to a school where our kids would gain a premier education.  It was our desire for them to go to a high achieving, successful school. This was not such a limiting factor as most international schools are fairly high achieving.
4)  Language - We did not limit our search by the percentage of English spoken.  It was our desire to learn a new language.  However, what did matter to us was the power that language would give our children in the future. We felt that being able to speak Arabic, Chinese, or Japanese would provide strategic advantages to our children so we targeted countries that spoke those languages.
5)  Savings - The amount that could be saved was also a large consideration.  We had debt that we would be leaving in the states, had to account for retirement and college savings, as well as we wanted the move to place us in a position to be debt free by the end of our first job placement (roughly 3 years).

These rough guidelines allowed us to create a list of schools we would pursue.  The list was quite extensive and included over 120 schools in 60+ countries.  While not very limiting, the process allowed us to get on the same page in terms of expectations and what we felt would be good for our family.


We found this process to be very personal and the criteria we used were unique to our situation.  Others we talked to wanted a more rustic experience or the opportunity to work in an impoverished nation where they felt they would be making a difference for the locals.  Everyone's situation is different.  We share this only to emphasize that a thoughtful process is important especially when multiple people are involved.